The Tax Foundation is the nation’s leading independent tax policy nonprofit. Since 1937, our principled research, insightful analysis, and engaged experts have informed smarter tax policy at the federal, state, and global levels. For over 80 years, our goal has remained the same: to improve lives through tax policies that lead to greater economic growth and opportunity.

FATCA Makes Life Tough for Americans Who Live Abroad

May 14, 2015

Andrew Lundeen

Andrew Lundeen

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) – which became law in 2010 – just recently came into full effect. The results are frustrating for Americans living abroad as they struggle to find foreign banks willing to serve them.

Stu Haugen, an American who lives overseas, recently wrote in the New York Times:

Intended to crack down on people who stash taxable income abroad, the law requires foreign banks to identify American clients and report all of their financial account information, including transaction details on checking, savings, investment, pension, mortgage and insurance accounts, to the United States government. Banks and financial institutions that do not comply are subject to a 30 percent withholding tax on revenues generated in the United States, a crushing penalty in today’s cross­-border financial markets.

The bureaucratic burden of identifying, verifying and reporting has caused many banks to regard American clients, particularly those of moderate means, as more trouble than they are worth. Middle-­class Americans living abroad are losing bank accounts and home mortgages and, in some cases, having their retirement savings exposed to debilitating taxes and penalties.

Haugen shares examples of a couple in Switzerland that was told they would lose their mortgage, a businessman in Brazil would was passed over for promotion at work, and a couple in Australia who were told their bank account would be cancelled.

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The Tax Foundation is the nation’s leading independent tax policy nonprofit. Since 1937, our principled research, insightful analysis, and engaged experts have informed smarter tax policy at the federal, state, and global levels. For over 80 years, our goal has remained the same: to improve lives through tax policies that lead to greater economic growth and opportunity.